Friday, January 28, 2011

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an unprecedented move at the beginning of January 2011 finally ceded to requests from the Israeli public to write a letter to President Obama. In the letter, Netanyahu urged the President to commute Jonathan J. Pollard's life sentence.

Netanyahu stated in his letter, "since Jonathan Pollard has now spent 25 years in prison, I believe that a new request for clemency is highly appropriate." Pollard's poor health was another major factor in Netanyahu's decision to write the letter.

The White House has noted that they recieved the letter and are reviewing it.

Netanyahu's letter marked the first time that an Israeli Prime Minister formally called for Jonathan Pollard to be released. Many prominent U.S. officials have concurred with Netanyahu's sentiment, such as George Shultz, Michael Mukasey, and James Woolsey, and wrote similar letters to the President urging executive clemency.

Since acknowledging that they received Netanyahu's letter, the White House has been mum on the Pollard case and has not stated when the President intends to respond to Netanyahu.

Will President Obama formally respond to Netanyahu's letter or will he keep him hanging like he did the second time that the Israeli Prime Minister visited the White House? It is almost February and no response has been given by the White House. Time will tell.

In the meantime, Netanyahu will be sitting in the waiting room twiddling his thumbs. How is that for another snub.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

You want to fly this Thanksgiving to get grandma's turkey? Well, if you do, you better be ready to get some of your stuffing checked by a groping TSA official.

Alas, we have reached the point in U.S. history where it is legal for another person of the same-sex to touch you in an area where only you or your spouse have exclusive rights. This open nothing off-limits touching policy only applies if you opt out of or refuse to have an x-ray picture taken of your naked body as if that is even a viable alternative.

Do we deserve to be subjected to such a sexual assault in the name of national security? The answer to that question depends on who you ask. Some will say absolutely not. Others have said if "I have to be touched in a private area in order to fly safely, then I am all for it."

To Groin or Not to Groin is finally upon us.

I fall in a gray area. While I am not at all enamored with the idea of a minimum wage TSA employee putting his hands on a No Touching Zone, I also understand that in an age of terrorism we have to loose some of our rights to ensure our safety. However, I would only accept such a blatant and gross infringement of privacy if it actually protected us from terrorism.

In this case, the x-ray images and invasive pat downs which we are now accustomed to in U.S. airports are not protecting us from terrorism or airplane hijackings at all. In fact, they are being implemented in such a way that terrorists could easily walk right through security without being targeted for pat downs or even x-ray images.

As far as I am aware, you only need to choose between an x-ray image of your naked body or a rather intrusive touch-up of your intimate areas if you are specifically asked to be targeted for the body scanner. Otherwise, you walk through the security checkpoint like its always been done before.

This is not proper or efficient security. Moreover, it will not protect us from another attack as people are randomly being subjected to the intrusive treatment whether they resemble terrorists or not. Children as young as three have been patted down in an intrusive manner as has 80 something year old grandmothers in walkers. Whereas, Middle Eastern women with Burkas or Middle Eastern men with one-way tickets to a far away island somewhere routinely stroll by security with little fanfare even though they are more likely to fit the profile of a suspected terrorist.

It is because the body scanners and the pat downs are useless in the fight against terrorism that I am adamantly opposed to them. No one should be subjected to having their groin examined let alone by a High School dropout TSA official. However, if we have no choice but to subject ourselves to such a treatment, then let it be worth something. Unfortunately, our children and elderly among the rest of ourselves are forced to be publicly humiliated in the name of government incompetence rather than national security simply because we have opted to cash in on our freedom to fly.

At the end of the day, pat downs and naked body scanners should only be permitted if there is a reasonable suspicion that the traveler is a threat to national security. If there is no viable threat, the citizenry 's privacy should be the government's paramount interest.

The problem is of course TSA officials are not competent enough to decipher whether a Middle Eastern looking man from Saudi Arabia is more of a threat to national security than a three year old American boy from Kansas.

If you really want this invasive policy to change, I suggest that you contact President Obama at the White House and demand that he preserve the privacy of the American people since he is the one who authorized the TSA to carry out these pat downs in the first place.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Not anymore. President Obama has become just like the Washington that he vowed to change when running for President in 2008.

On a Hispanic radio station, Obama urged Latinos to vote Democrat in order to prevail over our 'enemies' meaning to prevail over 'Republican enemies.' He later admitted that calling Republicans enemies was a poor choice of words.

If you thought calling Republicans enemies was over the top, Obama gave a speech recently at a political event and told the crowd that Republicans can join Democrats if they like but they have to "get in the back seat."

Could you imagine if a Republican during the 2008 campaign told Obama to "get in the back seat?" There would be massive protests and total mayhem.

Not so with Obama. He gets a free pass. At least though we can now say that Obama is not above the political rhetoric that has plagued Washington for years. He is now part of the problem.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

With just a few days before voting begins on November 2nd that could potentially bolster Republicans to power once again in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, a new and fresh controversy is brewing in Alaska which involves none other than Sarah Palin.

The Republican Senatorial candidate Joe Miller is in a tight race with the current Republican turned Independent Senator Lisa Murkowski. (Murkowsi lost to Joel Miller in the Republican Primaries and became an Independent to run in the General Election).

Miller has leveled a charge against the CBS affiliate in the Anchorage Alaska area KTVA asserting that the CBS affiliate was attempting to concoct a falsified story in order to bring down the Miller campaign only days before the midterm November elections.

Apparently, a CBS staffer called Miller's spokesman to schedule an interview. Miller's spokesman did not answer and the call went to voicemail. Instead of ending the call, the CBS staffer was accidentally overheard talking to another staffer about possible stories that could derail the Miller campaign. The spokesman's voicemail recorded the conversation. In the recorded conversation, one staffer is heard clearly telling the other staffer to get a list of Miller's campaign volunteers to see which one is a child molester.

KTVA is denying that there ever was an attempt to create a nonexistent story which could cause Miller to loose the election on November 2nd. The News Director of KTVA claimed that the staffers were merely discussing possible stories about the Miller campaign.

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is not buying KTVA's explanation and neither is Joe Miller.

Palin added some more flames to the controversy going on Fox News today with Chris Wallace blasting the media calling them "corrupt bastards" as she sees a double standard in the media in its bias towards Republican candidates.

What do you think about this story? Is Sarah Palin right in calling the media "corrupt bastards?" Does this story indicate a double standard in the media in being biased toward Republican candidates?

You may be wondering why I haven't posted in a long time. The truth is that I have been very busy lately. But, the even larger truth is that I discovered that not many people have been visiting my site. Because only a handful of people per day logged onto Kauffmans Commentary, I decided to discontinue the blog.

However, I have decided to resume writing for the blog on a temporary and limited basis to ascertain whether there is new interest in Kauffmans Commentary.

If you gain insight into Kauffmans Commentary and appreciate the views expressed in this blog, then it is imperative that you spread the word about Kauffmans Commentary and encourage your friends and family to visit the site.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

One day before the Obama Administration succeeded in resuming peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis, Israel was rocked by another terrorist attack.

The West blamed the attack on "militants" who were looking for an opportunity to sabotage the resumption of peace talks. For Israelis, the attack was another indication that peace with the Palestinians is an impossible reality.

In the latest terrorist attack, a car with four people inside came under fire in the West Bank by Palestinian snipers from Hamas. When it was all over, all four people were massacred with gun shot wounds spearing their internal organs. The four occupants in the vehicle were Yitzhak Ames, 47, and his wife Tali Ames, 45, Kochava Ben- Haim, 37, and Avishai Schindler, 24. The husband and wife had picked up two hitchhikers. While en route to their destination, the Palestinian terrorists fired on the vehicle from afar and then approached the occupants and fired on them at close range.

When paramedics arrived on the scene, all of the victims bodies were strewn on the street.

In an anguishing turn of events, completely unaware of what he was about to discover, Momy Ben-Haim one of the paramedics who was called to the scene of the terrorist attack was shocked to observe his wife Kochava's body strewn on the ground. Kochava happened to be one of the doomed hitchhikers who was picked up for a ride by Mr. and Mrs. Ames.

When observing his dead wife lying motionless on the ground, Ben-Haim screamed and shouted "That’s my wife! That’s my wife!" He was taken away from the scene immediately to his home.

Terrorist attacks in Israel are not just attacks on the victims. They are an attack on the entire nation.

If the Palestinians ever have any shot of convincing Israelis that they are committed to peace, they will have to rein in on the terror that killed these four occupants and wrecked the life of an innocent paramedic who had no way of knowing that his life would be changed forever in a matter of minutes as he embarked on the scene of unfortunately a routine terrorist attack.

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About the author

Kauffman received his B.A. in Psychology with a Minor in Rhetoric. He also received his J.D. Degree and is a practicing attorney. Kauffman was involved in the 2004 campaign to reelect George W Bush and served as the Chairman of a 2006 judicial campaign. He has written articles on the 2008 presidential election, legal cases, and other jurisprudence matters. He also has been a student of U.S. and international political affairs since following Middle School.